The Systematic Country Diagnostic (SCD)for Malawi provides the analytical foundation forcountry-level actions and investments to foster progresstowards the World Bank Group (WBG) Twin Goals as well as thecountry’s national goals. The main purpose of the SCD is toidentify the key challenges and opportunities that Malawifaces as it works towards eliminating extreme poverty andboosting shared prosperity in a sustainable manner. Thesystematic and evidence-based analysis from the SCD willserve to inform a new Country Partnership Framework and helpthe WBG, Government and external partners to prioritize andalign their strategies towards achieving the twin goals.Over past decades, Malawi’s development progress has beennegatively affected by shocks, both climate-related shocks,and domestic political and governance shocks, which havecollectively contributed to a slow pace of povertyreduction. Very little progress has been made in reducingpoverty in rural areas, where most Malawians live. Weakgovernance and entrenched political clientelism have beenobstacles to policy reform and the development of thecountry. This SCD takes a holistic approach to identify thedrivers of previous poor growth performances, drawing on thehistory of Malawi, and proposes a set of priority areas topromote durable and inclusive growth. The SCD is dividedinto six parts. The first part gives an overview of thecountry context, while the second part traces out the trendsin economic growth. The third part analyses poverty andshared prosperity in Malawi and their main drivers. Thefourth part provides the main diagnostics, identifying thekey constraints and pathways for Malawi to achieve the twingoals. The fifth part outlines the preliminary hypothesesfor achieving the twin goals, while part six indicatesknowledge gaps and areas for further research.
PDF
download
878987797
028-85220240
